We were out the door just after 7 today to meet up for our bus tour. We were picked up outside the apartment management office at 7.25 (a few streets away from our apartment) to meet up with the actual tour bus. In reality they could have just told us to walk up to the main bus terminal where the tour left from, as its only a 10 minute walk from the apartment. Thankfully I still managed to get my coffee.
The bus was completely full, this is a really popular tour as it covers three places including lunch in a day. The first stop after a bit of motorway travel was Siena where we sae the main square and the Duomo there. Aparently Siena and Florence have quite a storied history of rivalry, enough to put the Sydney / Melbourne rivalry to shame. The Duomo at Siena has a fantastic library with ancient books and scribed by monks. The detail is incredible, but they had plenty of time to spend on this sort of thing back in the 1500's. The ceiling frescos in this room are of outstanding quality, so bright and colourful.
After Siena, we were heading back to the bus, and one group of people got lost, so the guide handed Emma the flag whilst he went looking for them, so Emma was an offical Siena guide for about 10 minutes!
Back on the bus we headed to San Gimignano and stopped at a little restaurant in the Tuscan hills for lunch. Nothing particularly special, as they were catering for over 60 people at once, but it was still nice and the view was everything you would expect Tuscany to be. On the bus again to San Gim, now this in my opinion was the pick of the day, a fantastic / gorgeous little town at the top of a hill, almost disneyland like. Here we took some pictures, cruised the shops and had some fantastic Gelato.
Back on the bus again (this time for over an hour) through winding roads until we arrived a Pisa for a look at the tower. Got some of the obligatory leaning pictures as every single other tourist was doing, then got back on the bus and then onto the motorway for the hour or so drive back to Florence.
One of the standard shots
Outside the duomo at Siena
Bus selfie....
The motorway heading towards Siena
The main square in Siena
Some of the detail in the books in the Siena Duomo
Drinking water from a constant running tap. You see these everywhere in Italy, Looking through the eyes of an Australian where water is such a precious commodity, I'm constantly amazed its wasted like this.
Inside the Duomo at Siena
Fountain at Siena
Amazing frescos in the Siena Duomo
Tour guide Emma !
Our Tuscan lunch
The streets of San Gim
I found an Asian restaurant in Pisa. Something just tells me the
quality of Chinese food at home would be much better
quality of Chinese food at home would be much better
Finally at Pisa
